Strategy, the second pillar of scrappiness

Scrappy \’skra-pē\ adj: Full of fighting spirit—synonymous with having moxie, being feisty, enthusiastic, gutsy, lively and spunky.

A scrappy strategy encompasses all of your efforts: research, due diligence, and sweat equity—and helps you channel them in the most productive direction. It’s the tactical planning necessary to achieve a specific goal.

7. Ask the right questions. Once you’ve defined your goal, the next step is to lay the groundwork for your scrappy approach. Whatever the goal is that you want to accomplish, there will be one or more decision makers who will be necessary to help you get there. Ask yourself a few basic questions: Who is the decision maker you will need to contact? What kind of research can you do to find out how best to approach them? Do you need a quick solution, or are you working on the long game? What’s your time frame?

8. Keep the long game in mind. You may be looking for a quick solution right now, but it’s important to keep the 'long game' in mind as well. It may require several ideas, multiple approaches, and more time than you originally anticipated (before, during, and after you connect with a decision maker) before you see anything happen.

9. Dive deeper. The objective is to further develop your knowledge and skill set and design a solid foundation to build from—a new set point of perspective. Insight, skill, and timing—all of these elements will make you a more formidable competitor and awaken the interest of a decision maker in your proposition. You want to cultivate a connection, spark interest, and show you are unique, so go above and beyond what the general public will do and learn as much as you can within the time allotted to stand out and play bigger!

Search the Internet

Expand your network

Develop your personal skill set

Invest a bit of money

Work with a mentor

10. Customise your effort. Think through a variety of options and evaluate whether your effort is going to be before, during, or toward the end of your process, as well as small, medium, or large in scale. Sometimes your idea or solution to a problem is a simple, easy‑to‑execute effort. Small actions can have a big impact, too. But again, sometimes the big ideas get the big results. Don’t overcomplicate it if you don’t have to!